Sally Poole is the owner of Poole Communications, with offices in Hannibal, Marshall and Poplar Bluff, Missouri. She is very involved in Hannibal and Quincy, IL., with memberships in the Chamber of Commerce, Hannibal Arts Council, Affordable Community Education, Lions Club and Rotary. She has helped in the fund-raising campaign to build a Hannibal campus for Moberly Area Community College. Currently she is helping to start the Hannibal Chamber Business Development Committee.

The main mission of the Hannibal Chamber of Commerce is business growth in the Hannibal region. To help accomplish this, the chamber has set up a Business Development group. After meeting for the first time, we determined there was a need to set some baseline figures to determine how effective the group's efforts will be in the future. We turned to some of the DREAM documents to use as a guideline. While most of the work for DREAM was done in the downtown area, this group is committed to Hannibal as a whole.

One of our first steps will be to get an inventory of businesses that are currently located in Hannibal. The we will look at space available for new business to rent or build. This includes existing buildings and land that could be developed. All businesses are being held to a higher standard of accountability. Using this baseline we will be able to guage our progress.

Using the the award winning 50 Mile of Art program as a template, we'd like to then focus on the types of businesses we want and need in Hannibal. Then we intend to tenaciously court those businesses. We'll develop packages and presentations that outline why Hannibal is a great place to start or move a business.